Cassidy wins stage

Two years after crashing out of the FBD Insurance Rás while wearing the race leader's yellow jersey, Mark Cassidy returned to the top of the podium when he won the penultimate stage of the event. The victory brought things full circle, and showed that after a period of injury and fluctuating morale, that he is now back on track.

The An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly rider attacked with Fredrik Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket) after ten kilometres of racing, was joined by four others - Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team), Simon Williams (Ireland Subway National Team), Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) and Frazer Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles) - then pressed ahead alone with Stieigmiller on the first of four categorised climbs, the cat one ascent of Drumgoff.

Over the remaining three climbs, they held off the chasers behind and raced in to the finish in Kilcullen together, where Cassidy finished well clear in the uphill sprint to the line.

"I'm happy, very happy," he said after the stage. "Crossing the line, I was in complete shock and couldn't really believe it. It was such a strange moment but it is starting to settle in now.

"You could say it is a big relief. I think this is my seventh Rás.I've tried so hard every year but hadn't really won anything in the race. To finally get it is a really nice feeling."

Cassidy's father Philip won the event twice, triumphing in 1983 and 1999. He also took multiple stages. He was delighted with today's result, saying that it was important in his development. "It was great to see. I think it will help Mark's confidence a lot," he said.

Cassidy and Steigmiller were out front for a long, long time and when the general classification battle heated up behind, it looked like they could be caught. However they remained focussed and the gap started to go up again, ensuring that the stage win would be decided between the two of them.

"I knew the decisive moment would be the first climb," he explained. "The German guy pushed on there so I just stayed with him. At first I was trying to take the KOH [King of the Hills] points so that the Swedish guy with us wouldn't take it off [team-mate] David O'Loughlin. But then we got a good gap.he was strong and I was quite strong as well, and we worked quite well.

"It looked like we were going to get caught with 25 kilometres to go as the gap came down to a minute, but we had a bit more left in the tank. We just gave it everything to the finish. He got a bit of jump on me in the sprint, but I think for once I wasn't nervous. I had great confidence. He got the jump but I knew it was uphill and I just went as hard as I could to get after him. I came around him in the last 100
metres or so, I was really happy."

It is the second stage win for the An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly squad this week; Mayo rider David O'Loughlin won stage three. O'Loughlin went into today's stage leading the King of the Mountains classification, but missed the break. Cassidy went for the climbs in order to prevent others from hoovering up the points. As things worked out, he won all four of them, cresting Drumgoff, Wicklow Gap, Slieve Corragh and Tober ahead of Steigmiller.

He ended the day precisely level on points with O'Loughlin, but took over the jersey.

Overnight leader Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket) had a tough day today, being under attack from all of his main rivals, but he has retained the yellow jersey. At times he was distanced slightly, but he was able to fight his way back on each occasion.

"I am really happy with the day, except that I was left alone in the last 25 kilometres. Our team worked in the beginning and everyone worked fine until the first climb, then after that I was more or less left alone. It was hard in the last 25 kilometres when everybody in my 20-25 man group attacked me.

"The most dangerous riders were the Motorpoint guy [Peter Williams] and [Dan] Craven from Rapha Condor. They were the strongest ones that were attacking. But the other ones, the Sean Kelly and the Thuringer guys are really strong as well, so I had a rough day today."

 Wetterhall said that he was gapped on the second climb, that of Wicklow Gap, but was able to fight back on after about a kilometre. "I thought I could catch them at the top.I did it and that was great,"

Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) and Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) were third and fourth, 47 and 50 seconds back respectively, while John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) led home the chase group one minute and three
seconds after Cassidy. Irish riders David O'Loughlin and Connor McConvey (both An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) took tenth and fourteenth, and Wetterhall also finished in this group.

The most notable abstentee was Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis), whostarted the day eight seconds off the race lead in second overall. He cracked and lost five minutes and 36 seconds. Williams is consequently the closest to Wetterhall now, but is 59 seconds back.

Craven is third overall, a minute and a half behind, while McConvey is one minute 45 seconds back in fourth overall.

The final stage of the race tends not to produce large time gaps and so Wetterhall is looking good for the final overall win. However he is taking nothing for granted. "Tomorrow is a hard stage as well. So we have to do it well in the team, have good team-work," he said. "Then we can take the jersey for the whole Tour."

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